This compact book is an invaluable primer for the novice graphic designer or for the experienced designer keen to reconnect with the fundamental principles of design. Master designer Massimo Vignelli draws on his much-awarded design career to offer sage advice on design and strong opinions on the woes that have befallen good design since the advent of desktop publishing. His aim is to give young designers the tools to advance their design skills and increase their creativity, hoping that the discovery of new principles excites and inspires, just as they inspired the young Vignelli. The book is divided into two sections the 'intangibles' and the 'tangibles'. In the former, he urges designers to research, to uncover complexities and to understand the nuances of the job at hand. He urges discipline, adherence to the rules of design, relevance and appropriateness, and the search for what he calls an intellectual elegance, the essence of design. The 'tangibles' section covers many of the visible aspects of design that are essential parts of the designer's tool kit, such as standardized paper sizes, grids, margins, basic typefaces, type size relationships, scale, texture, color, binding and more. Generous illustrations and examples accompany each topic. With this succinct volume, Vignelli has succeeded in sifting through the often ego-driven and subjective field of graphic design to present solid, basic, invaluable advice that aspiring designers will return to again and again.
马西莫·维涅里（Massimo Vignelli，1931—2014）是意大利国宝级设计师，现代主义设计的开拓中坚，二十世纪下半叶视觉传达发展进程中具有深远影响的人物之一。他的设计领域涵盖了包装、产品、家具、展示设计到公共标识。
1966年，维涅里同其他设计师共同创办了“益茂国际”（Unimark International），这家设计所很快便成为了世界上最大的设计公司之一，并为众多世界知名企业设计了身份标识，如美国航空、美国布鲁明代尔百货公司、福特、IBM等。这一时期，维涅里最著名的设计作品是纽约地铁线路图。1971年，维涅里离开益茂国际，与妻子莱拉一起在纽约创办了维涅里设计事务所，被视为设计界的全能常青树。